Join Us in Showing Our Solidarity

Posted on 8th May 2020

Above: Frimhurst Family House, a much needed resource, remains closed during the lockdown.

Dear all,

While the effects of Covid-19 have hit all of us, it’s not right that people who struggle daily because of poverty are experiencing the impacts more severely than most.

The ATD Fourth World community is a source of well-being for many families and individuals. It is somewhere where they can find peer support and show solidarity; but they have been unable to connect in person for six weeks now. Social distancing measures have pulled the shutters down on public places that offered free internet. This makes the struggle for virtual connection even more of an uphill battle. We are deeply worried that parents of children in the social care system are being forgotten about. It is all so scary and exhausting, and adds to the already considerable stresses and strains of life in poverty.

ATD Fourth World continues to be together with people whose lives are the toughest. We invite you to join us in the spirit of giving and unity as an emergency response to Covid-19. Knowing that the economic effects of this crisis will be profound and long-lasting, please consider regular giving by standing order as a way of recognising how people in our ATD Fourth World community continue to support one another.

Please click here to donate.

Here are a few ways your gift makes an impact:

£10 enables us to top up someone’s data allowance so that they can participate in an online activity.
£50 contributes to the costs of frequent telephone calls to check in with as many people as possible. These calls are a source of strength through the uncertainties, a chance for people to speak about the challenges they are coping with.
£150 mails ten packages of art materials to children taking part in our Tapori “Circle of Friendship for Everyone” campaign.
£300 supports the technical and staffing costs to set up and run a group conference call to provide mutual support, build collective knowledge, and develop programmes and priorities.
£500 helps keep our lights on and our staff and houses cared for as we all keep going.

Our programmes have been forced to change with the crisis.

Below are a couple of examples of how we have adapted and continue to keep people connected and break isolation. You can read more here.

To bridge the digital divide, we are looking for more ways for people in poverty to access the internet and also ensuring that as part of the APLE (Addressing Poverty with Lived Experience) Collective, their experience and thinking can lead the campaign on this issue.
As part of the Parents, Families and Allies Network, we are advocating for parents of children being monitored by social care to be able to propose solutions that would work for families in their situations.
Through our Tapori “Circle of Friendship for Everyone” campaign, we are inviting children across the country to break isolation and encourage one another by exchanging “recipes for positivity” and messages of friendship.

Thank you for taking this time to think about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on individuals, children, and families going through a particularly hard time.

In solidarity,